Yes, thanks to James T for showing us the highs and lows of Chicago-area tiki!!!

And to think, it almost didn't happen. This Tiki Road Trip started off a little more action-packed than it should have as my car was rear-ended on the Toronto leg of our Montreal-Chicago drive. My car was out of commission and I ended up spending the afternoon in the hospital, getting 11 big stitches to close up a huge gash on my forehead! After being picked up at the hospital by fellow Mai Tai contributor, Toronto resident and best pal in the world Dave LeBlanc and his wife Shauntelle, I had a decision to make: turn around and head back to Montreal, depressed about the permanent souvenir of Highway 401 etched across my face OR get a rental car and keep going...

Needless to say, we forged ahead... and I am so glad we did. Though I think I may have been in a state of semi-shock for the first day or so in Chicago... What a wonderful city! Didn't get to see absolutely everything I had planned to but it was a great first-time trip.

By the time we got around to meeting up with James, I was feeling much better. Thanks so much for the ride out to 'burbs, JT! The Hala Kahiki experience was quite beautiful and a little surreal... especially when The Moon of Manakoora began to be drowned out by Depeche Mode's greatest hits blaring from the jukebox. But Club Paradise (or is that Paradise Club?)... Wow! That was something! Nothing I can write here can do justice to the experience of walking into the dead-silent/black-light/bare-bones/last-vestiges-of-tiki ambience that this joint oozes. And being carded (I'm 42, by the way) by a surly, bleached-blond, Eastern European-accented "hostess." And being serenaded (O Canada!) by 4 drunks at the bar (who insisted they "meant no disrespect"). I live for stuff like this!!!